Maravi

Don't fear the press, KK urges govt

Don't fear the press, KK urges govt
By Mwila Chansa, Speedwell Mupuchi,Abigail Chaponda and Bright
Saturday May 03, 2008 [04:00]

DR Kenneth Kaunda has called on governments and organisations not to fear press freedom. And United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) director-general Koïchiro Matsuura has said acts of intimidation and violence against journalists were morally unacceptable. In his World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) message that falls today under the theme "Freedom of the Press, Access to Information and Empowerment of People", Dr Kaunda said governments and other organisations should be ready to see that the truth be told about them“The world of the press is an extremely important aspect of human development. It is a key to development,” Dr Kaunda said.

He said it was society’s desire that the press told them what was happening around them in a transparent, sincere and truthful manner. Dr Kaunda said press freedom was important not only for journalists but the government and society at large.

And Matsuura said freedom of expression was a fundamental human right recognised in Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, whose 60th anniversary was being celebrated this year.

He paid tribute to the courage and professionalism of the many journalists and media professionals killed and wounded while carrying out their professional activities. He noted that alongside the dangers of conflict areas and war zones, journalists often faced threats, intimidation and actual violence as a direct result of their work.

“These acts are unconscionable, not only because they violate the human rights of individuals, but also because they impede the free flow of accurate and reliable information which underpins good governance and democracy. Too often these crimes are not adequately punished,” he said.

Matsuura stated that press freedom and access to information fed into the wider development objective of empowering people by giving them the information that could help them gain control over their own lives.

“This empowerment supports participatory democracy by giving citizens the capacity to engage in public debate and to hold governments and others accountable. But this flow of communication does not happen automatically.

It has to be fostered by a free, pluralistic, independent and professional media, and through national policies founded on four key principles at the heart of UNESCO’s work: freedom of expression, quality education for all, universal access to information and knowledge, and respect for linguistic diversity,” he stated.

“Without strong policies to foster linguistic diversity in all aspects of a nation’s life - in schools, administration, law and in the media - we risk denying hundreds of thousands of people around the world of the basic right to engage in public life and debate.”

Matsuura noted that freedom of information, and online information alone did not guarantee access. He stated that people also needed the internet connectivity and IT resources to use that information, for example to access national or international news or to provide a plurality of media options, including community radio.

He said as people celebrate World Press Freedom Day today, they should remember the journalists who had put themselves at risks in order to provide the public with accurate and independent information.

Matsuura also advised people to remember that press freedom and freedom of information were the founding principles for good governance, development and peace.
And UPND Namwala member of parliament Major Robbie Chizhyuka challenged the media to exhibit enough traits of self-regulation.

Speaking at the stakeholders’ meeting ahead of World Press Freedom Day at Mulungushi International Conference Centre yesterday, Maj Chizhyuka said there was need for the media to unite to deal with ethical issues that arose under a single ethical body.
He urged the media to continue lobbying, negotiating and convincing the lawmakers on the need to implement the access to information law.

Maj Chizyuka said the media should organise itself and demonstrate a strong ethical capacity that it could deal with intricacies that arose in the course of their duty.
He said the issue of the media belonging to one single ethical body was frequently raised by members of the public and it could not be ignored.

Maj Chizhyuka said there was need for partnership among the public, private media and parliamentarians to iron out contentious issues that surrounded the implementation of the access to information law.

And Post managing editor Amos Malupenga said it was unfortunate that the process of implementing the access to information law was being delayed due to personal interests by some lawmakers.

Malupenga, contributing to the debate on the need for access to information law, called for objectivity among parliamentarians as they formulated laws meant to govern the public. He said it was sad that there seemed to be a tug of war between the members of parliament and the media.

Malupenga observed that it was sad that some mistakes of the media were being generalised. He said, for example, some mistakes by The Post were not expected to let other media suffer because the existence of the media was not dependent on a single entity or individual.

He said The Post makes its own mistakes just like other media institutions.
“And we are just as concerned as members of the public about the need for professionalism in our work, so this matter cannot be overemphasised,” Malupenga said. “For that reason, there is a lot that we do publicly and privately to uphold our professionalism.”

Malupenga also said The Post supported in principle the objectives of Media Ethics Council of Zambia (MECOZ) but did not belong to this voluntary self-regulatory body.
“We have our own reasons which we can explain to those who would want to know why we don’t belong to MECOZ,” Malupenga said.

“Be that as it may, we still have some common grounds with MECOZ and we cooperate with them, together with other media bodies. But the bottom line is that membership is voluntary. And we believe that this country has sufficient laws to ensure that we operate professionally.”

Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) president Andrew Sakala said the media had shown considerable improvement in terms of self-regulation over the years. He said members of parliament should not formulate laws based on their personal experiences with some media institutions.

And in an interview, Mission Press director Fr Miha Drevensek observed that the public media had been hijacked and strangled. He said many journalists in the public media had uncovered a lot of anomalies in the government and even wrote about them but the information did not see the light of day because it was suffocated.

“Government is afraid of press freedom. Public media has been hijacked by the party in power and therefore strangled to a point of ‘slaveryish’ one-sided reporting,” Fr. Miha said.

He said if journalists in the public media attempted to write anything against the government, they could lose their employment.

“Government fears the truth to be known about what is happening in government. That is why they don’t want press freedom,” he said.

“Press freedom is somehow on the middle of the road. There are areas that are spoken about freely while those that tackle real life of national development cannot be talked about because government is in charge. I say there is still a long way to go.”


Fr Miha also called for the training of journalists in investigative and analytical reporting in order to enhance press freedom.

Labels: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL, PRESS

posted by MrK @ 3:13 AM